Superhero You: Bridge Your Skills Gap

We know that we're all capable of being super at our jobs--and LAP helps bring out the inner superhero in all of us-- even if we don't have Black Panther's advanced tech, Captain America's strength, Thor's chiseled good looks, or Black Widow's stealth.

SO... for one and a half days, we'll showcase great ideas from amazing session facilitators. We want to help others level up their own abilities. We want to harness the powers of the collective to become the best teams and colleagues we can be.

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Our Innovative Speakers!

Awesome Sponsors!

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Speed Learning Sessions

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Event Participants

Event Speakers

Shelly Holt

Vice President of Learning & Development - Expedia

Shelly Holt is a thought leader, innovator and strategist passionate about helping enhance and expand the power of people. As a leader Shelly believes that her greatest gift is strengthening those around her. As such, she has invested personal and professional time coaching, mentoring and developing others throughout her career. Shelly has held senior level leadership roles in global organizations like Concur and SAP, recently joining Expedia Group in August as VP of LPS Learning. She has a degree in Business Economics and is certified in critical human capital areas like Leadership Coaching, Performance Consulting, Strategic Workforce Planning and Strategic Human Resource Management. Shelly is a Washington State native and loves spending time with her husband Mike and two kids Madison, 13 and Tyler, 10.

Andrew McMasters

Professional Training & Coaching

Bio: Andrew McMasters is an actor, director and entrepreneur with over 30 years of experience in the arts. He is a founder of Jet City Improv, a non-profit theater that he managed for 25 years, and worked for multiple Fortune 500 companies to provide presentation support and messaging as well as team building and communications trainings. Andrew is dedicated to experiential learning, providing opportunities for self-discovery and driving innovation in our everyday lives.

Darren Nerland

Chief Disruptor - Learnapalooza

I work on disruptive, innovative, and emergent digital learning technologies and methodologies. I align key leaders and stakeholders on the implementation of learning initiatives for the enterprise. I am an expert technologist with a demonstrable track record of bringing complex learning systems from requirements through design into scalable production. My experience includes working at the executive level to determine how training strategies and awareness can affect and sustain positive behavioral change. I am an accomplished and dynamic leader with strong global learning strategy and measurement experience.

Scott McCormick

CEO Emergent Enterprise Consulting

Emergent technologies like augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) are permeating every aspect of business including HR, production, sales, design and, of course, training. The way companies support and improve employee performance and capabilities is being infused with unprecedented innovation as new technology is leveraged to help workers do their jobs better. And the changes can’t happen fast enough as industries are learning that they need newly equipped and multi-faceted workforces in less time with smaller training budgets to meet high velocity competitive business environments. How do today’s training professionals meet these challenging demands, take advantage of new tech potential and deliver immersive, immediate information?

Amy Lou Abernethy

Chief Learning Strategist at AMP Creative

Amy Lou Abernethy began her career as an educator but was soon drawn into the world of visual storytelling and video production. In addition to co-founding and nurturing the agency AMP Creative, she followed her heart back to the art and science of adult learning a few years ago, getting her masters in learning in digital environments. Standing at the crossroads of learning innovation and cinematic storytelling, Amy Lou collaborates with companies to develop transformative learning experiences and AMP Creative produces those experiences. She looks for opportunities to connect with people through stories, across a variety of mediums, from printed infographics to immersive virtual reality.

Erin Petershick

Chief Innovator - Learnapalooza

Dynamic, multi-talented professional experienced working in both public and private sectors. People love me for my energy, creativity and smarts, often looking to me for future-forward leadership. As an avid early adopter and experimenter, I invite you to come play in the spaces I inhabit!

Nick Iverson

Associate Consultant Intrepid

Nick is an Associate Consultant on the Learning Experience Design team at Intrepid. In his role he is interested in how usability and UX methods can help improve the design of digital learning experiences. He has an M.Ed in Instructional Design from WGU and a BA from the University of Washington.

Stella Lee

Chief E-Learning Strategist - Paradox Learning

Dr. Stella Lee has over 20 years of progressive experience internationally in consulting, planning, designing, implementing, and measuring learning initiatives. Today her focus is on large scale learning projects including enterprise-wide e-learning strategy and governance, learning management system (LMS) evaluation and implementation, learning analytics, digital transformation and change management. Stella has most recently consulted for the LMS implementation project at TransLink, the transportation authority in the city of Vancouver, Canada. She has also served as subject matter expert in evaluating e-learning standards for the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), and conducted postdoctoral research with iCore Research Lab at Athabasca University, Canada’s Open University. Stella serves as Canada’s Startup Advisor and is the technology columnist for Training Industry Magazine. She is passionate about augmenting technologies to optimize human potentials. She runs a consulting company Paradox Learning Inc. (www.paradoxlearning.com). Connect with her on https://www.linkedin.com/in/stellal/

Trina Rappoport

Learning and Talent Management Specialist

My previous work as a generalist had me delving more and more into the Talent Development team and deepened my interest in becoming more specialized as a trainer. Now as a Learning Specialist, I play a key role in the delivery of Talent Management services and solutions. I partner with the broader HR team to assess the learning and development needs for employees in the organization, then work in collaboration to develop and deliver programs and workshops to address those needs. I support the goal of building the company's human capital by helping to shape learning initiatives and increasing employee involvement to enrich the learning culture.
Certified Facilitator with Development Dimensions International (DDI) to deliver all content and Blessing White for Taking Control of your Engagement.

Maya Yankelevich Garza

Leadership and Talent Management Expert

Experienced talent management and leadership development professional highly skilled at strategic consulting, large-scale HR program development and implementation, and building strong relationships with business leaders and HR partners. Have extensive experience leading and contributing to the design, development, and evaluation of customized human resource, leadership, and employee development solutions in private and public sector organizations. My broad array of HR experience includes organizational development; job analysis and competency modeling; succession planning; design and delivery of personnel assessment programs and customized tests, including personality and cognitive tests, assessment centers, and simulations; training needs analysis design, development, and delivery; organizational survey design and delivery; and performance management. In all my projects designing and developing new, or improving current programs, I extensively consult around culture, measurement, and strategic change management.

Tammy Dietz

Learning Experience Design

Tammy Dietz is a learning experience consultant, facilitator, instructional designer, writer, and editor. She has worked in the field of training and development for twenty years and has provided services to clients such as AT&T, Microsoft, Netflix, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Valve Software, and Bellevue College. Tammy has a Master's degree in Creative Writing and is also professionally certified in MBTI, The Language of Work, and The Five Moments of Need.

Brian Washburn

Co-founder / Principal

"What's possible?" Asking that question has allowed me to break out of the mold of traditional learning design ever since I crafted my first lesson plan in 2000.
Among other things, asking "what's possible" has given me the opportunity to design training programs that have literally helped to cure blindness, that have helped three international NGOs navigate a merger, and that have helped the sales force of a Fortune 500 company boost sales.
Asking "what's possible" has given me the opportunity to write articles for TD magazine and it led me to a training initiative that earned me recognition as a Top Young Trainer by Training magazine in 2011.
Asking "what's possible" led me to go out and co-found a boutique instructional design and organizational development firm named Endurance Learning.
My basic goal in life is to eradicate the scourge of poor learning experiences in this world by working with others to ensure every presentation is engaging and leads to change.

GET EXPERIENCE

Shift your perspective on learning

How you transform your business as the learning industry changes? Find out from those leading the charge.

May 2nd

Registration / Check in

Library doors open at 8 am. You can register, get your badge, and get some coffee and tea.
Be sure to say hi to your fellow superheroes!

9:00 - 9:30

Darren Nerland

Welcome / Kickoff

A Superhero Story: What does a superhero look like?

9:30 - 10:15

Shelly Holt

Keynote - The Future of Work

The global economy is evolving at an unprecedented pace and disrupting the composition of the workforce. If you follow many of the top influencers and disruptors in this area, you can easily become overwhelmed and even paralyzed with what to do.
Unleash your inner superhero because as L&D professionals we finally have a platform for change. A real business reason to make an impact.
With digital disruption comes opportunity.
• Opportunity to ignite business transformation.
• Opportunity for us to do what we do best – building critical skills that evolve mindsets.
• Opportunity to help our business’s transform by turning awareness into performance execution.
We have the chance to step up, to learn from each other, and to help our organizations execute now and in the future.

10:15 - 10:30

Break

Break

10:30 - 12:00

Speed Learning

Speed Learning Rounds

You will be able to go to 5 - 15-minute sessions.
It is a rotating group of participants.
This is done in an open space or cafeteria style format - and what a smorgasbord of learning it is!

12:00 - 1:00

Lunch

Lunch / Networking

1:00 - 2:00

Andrew Hughes

Design Digitally Session

1:00 - 2:00

Stella Lee

Future of Work Ideation workshop/mini hack

The nature of work is drastically changing. The World Economic Forum predicts that AI in the workplace will create 133 million jobs while 75 million jobs will be displaced by 2022. As a nation and as individuals, we need to prepare for and address the challenges in this change. In this interactive workshop, we aim to come to gather to ideate potential solutions, technological or otherwise, to tackle these challenges and to better position ourselves to upskill, reskill, and optimize our talents for the future of work.

1:00 - 2:00

Maya Yankelevich Garza

Navigating the new “whitewater world"-trends shaping the future of the workplace

The world of work is changing. Globalization, technological advances, demographic shifts, and alternative work structures are just some of the trends that will shape the future of the workplace. Navigating this new “whitewater world” will demand that organizations embrace constant change and create new knowledge faster than their competitors. People are at the crux of this challenge.

2:00 - 2:10

Break

Break

2:10 - 2:45

Trina Rappoport

Become a Brainstorming Transformer

Tired of the same old ideas? This session will introduce you to a new way to power up, break down, or transform old ideas into new solutions. We’ll walk through a new tool to help increase innovative thinking and get more ideas on how to solve current learning problems.

2:10 - 2:45

Brian Washburn

Faster than a speeding bullet: How to quickly develop engaging and interactive presentations

The outcome of this session is for each participant who brings their own device to walk away with a pretty polished lesson plan for a session they might need to give at some point in the near future and/or that they want to give. These lesson plans will be loaded with activities designed to engage their audience, yet that also fit their own presentation comfort level. We will do this in several ways: 1) Some sort of Human vs Machine challenge in which mere mortals take their best shot at quickly developing a presentation outline based upon a given topic and learning objectives... they'll be up against a Super Hero that the world has never seen before: Soapbox. Soapbox is a prototype software package that can generate a lesson plan outline in seconds. 2) We'll reveal the secret identity behind any successful attempt at engaging facilitation: matching engagement strategies to a presenter's comfort level and skill set. (Some engagement strategies prove to be Kryptonite to even seasoned presenters) 3) Participants will each be able to try out Soapbox, generate a presentation for themselves and provide feedback to us that would make this Super Hero able to save the day for any situation.

3:00- 4:00

Tammy Dietz

Anything But a Course

Want to get in on the future of learning? Join this session to learn about crafting learning experiences that vary from traditional ILT and WBT. You’ll be provided with guidelines, tips, and the opportunity act as a Second Century LX Designer by imagining the possibilities for learning experiences in the modern workplace. You will also learn about the shifting role of Instructional Designers as evangelists for the future of learning, and how to work with stakeholders who may be resistant to educational experiences that are outside of the norm.

3:00 - 4:00

Amy Lou Abernethy

Imperfection as a Superpower: In Diversity & Inclusion, in Learning, and in Life

In this session, fellow superheroes learn:
• Powerful “imperfect” mindsets that open conversations between diverse team members and are catalysts for transformational change.
• The brain science behind these mindsets and why they work.
• How these lessons transfer beyond traditional D&I to permeate a company’s culture.
• How cutting edge tech is being used in the D&I space—blended with the human touch of deep conversation and coaching.
I challenge our supergroup to create a space where we all learn and grow together, sharing our experiences, our setbacks, and our successes. This highly participatory session includes low effort/high impact tactics that participants can begin to use in their organizations and their lives immediately.

3:00 - 4:00

Scott McCormick

Immersive Immediate Information: Enterprise Training in the 2020s

This session will explore innovative ways companies in a variety of industries are adopting emergent technologies to deliver effective training and employee support. By producing deliverables such as remote assistance AR, VR environments for safety awareness, mixed reality collaborative sessions, and AI-fueled bots, just to name a few, this session will show how L & D, or increasingly coming out of other departments, is meeting the needs of a demanding and tech savvy workforce. Attendees will also learn how to strategically adapt in an effective and responsible process so as to deploy new technologies with a positive user experience (UX) in a budget friendly way. The session will present the ACT Connection Strategy that evaluates the Audience, the training Context and the required Technology for any successful initiative. Finally, there will be a look ahead at the incredible future innovation in technology and training. Attendees will participate in a group activity using design thinking that will result in new concepts for existing training challenges.

May 3rd

Registration / Check in

Welcome / Kickoff

The bad news, an evil villain wants you to lecture using the “death by PowerPoint” method.
The good news, your team is full of superheroes.
Can you Save the World from boring training?
Save the World is an experiential digital escape room. An escape room is a series of challenges that your team needs to complete in order to escape the digital room before the clock runs out. You and up to 7 other people (your team), will work together to Save the World using your smartphones and the Geoteaming app. The challenges are missions related to Learnapalooza's theme of “Super Hero You” and will teach skills learned from 22 years of building teams around the world. Save the World accelerates participants’ networking at Learnapalooza, teaches team work in real time scenarios, and gives participants the opportunity to experience a digital escape room from an award-winning designer.

More SuperPowers

Wrap Up

WHO HELPS US
Our Sponsors

The Seattle Public Library is the public library system serving Seattle, Washington. It was officially established by the city in 1890, though there had been efforts to start a Seattle library as early as 1868. There are 26 branches in the system, most of them named after the neighborhoods in which they are located.

Consent for Use of Image and Voice

Attendance at Learnapalooza events constitutes an agreement by the attendee to Learnapalooza use and distribution of the attendee’s image and/or voice in photos, video or audio tapes recorded during these events.

Reimbursement Policy

No refunds will be granted within 7 days of the event if food and drink have already been ordered. Apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.